Swiss gold quarter repeating complicated watch Circa 1900

Gold watch retailed by Leon Weil & Hno., B. Becker & Co.
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A high quality Swiss full hunter 18 carat gold pocket watch with minute repeater, chronograph, full calendar and moon phase, circa 1900. Retailed by Leon Weil & Hno., B. Becker & Co., Santiago-Valparaiso. An engine turned case with polished band and rims, olive shaped button at 12 for the chronograph. Hinged gold cuvette engraved with the retailer’s details, glazed gold rimmed cover over the movement. White enamel dial with radial Roman numerals, outer minute track and outermost fifths of second divisions with red Arabic five second numerals. Subsidiary seconds dial, date and days of the week dials, apertures for the months, moon phases and gilt Louis XV hands. Frosted gilt movement, 23 jewels, straight line lever escapement, cut bimetallic compensation balance, blued steel Breguet balance spring, index regulator, repeating on gongs activated by a push button on the band. Dial signed, cuvette signed by the retailer.
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Diameter: 61 mm
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Signed: Les Fils de R. Picard  Chaux-de-Fonds
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Picard & Cie. 
The company Picard & Cie. was based in La Chaux de Fonds and was also known as Fabrique Germinal. The company was located at 43 Rue Jaquet-Droz. Founded in 1848, the company was initially owned by Meyer Frères, then passed to Picard père et fils and was finally renamed Picard et Cie in 1895. Like the Meyer family, the Picards were of Jewish descent in Switzerland and came primarily from the community of Hégenheim and surrounding areas in France. The company founded the new Fabrique Germinal brand, specialising in chronographs and repeating watches. At the beginning of the 20th century, after some innovations that made it possible to simplify the repeating movement, it became one of the largest manufacturers of complicated watches.
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The company received various patents for chronographs and repeating watches. The company had a branch in Paris, and at the beginning of the last century, the company had a strong market in Spain, where it also regularly advertised and published a Spanish catalogue. In 1916, the company was forced to transfer the general agency to Hermann Masur at Ritterstrasse 99 in Berlin due to the Second World War. Germinal was known for its special watches for drivers, aviators, engineers and doctors. Picard & Fils, Fabrique Germinal, and SA La Chaux de Fonds manufactured all “Germinal” watches. Their USA representatives were Germinal-Voltaire Watches Vulcain Watch Co. of North America, New York, NY
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After disappearing in the mid-1960s after more than a century of innovation, the company rose from its ashes decades later to reinvent traditional watchmaking craft. Picard & Cie is part of the family of brands distributed from Carrollton, Texas. The focus is on the Swiss heritage of the brand name to give the impression that it is a Swiss watch without actually saying so. Until recently, the watches were only available in America, and only Japanese movements were used. Now, the company appears to have ceased operations.